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Vassar & New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Apprentice Company Performances Begin in July

The Powerhouse Theater Training Program will kick off its annual season of free Apprentice Company performances on Thursday, July 2, running through Saturday, July 25. Marking Powerhouse Theater’s 31st season on the Vassar campus, the exciting Apprentice Company season will include performances of TWELFTH NIGHT and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, by William Shakespeare; VINEGAR TOM, by Caryl Churchill; as well as workshop productions of OH MY PALIMPSEST [working title], by Maggie Namulyanga, and WATER, directed by Tomi Tsunoda with music direction by Stephanie Johnstone. Once again the company will also present “soundpainting” performances, a series of guided improvisations featuring music, dance, and acting with members of both the Powerhouse Apprentice Company and the Brooklyn Soundpainting Company.

Apprentice Company productions of TWELFTH NIGHT, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, and VINEGAR TOM will take place at the Vassar Farm & Ecological Preserve, across the street from the main Vassar campus at the intersection of Raymond Avenue (state highway 376) and Hooker Avenue. Soundpainting performances are held in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. All performances are free and open to the public, without reservations (full performance calendar follows below).

For information about times and locations for the workshop performances and for additional information about the Powerhouse Theater Training Program contact the Powerhouse administrative offices at powerhouse@vassar.edu or call (845) 437-7645. For information about the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center call the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370.

About the Powerhouse Theater Training Program

As part of the Powerhouse Theater partnership between Vassar and New York Stage & Film, the training program provides a rigorous five-week learning experience for high school and college students. Young theater artists choose to study acting, playwriting, or directing, as well as together forming the Powerhouse Apprentice Company. Complementing this work, the apprentices also gain invaluable experience within the framework of the larger Powerhouse Theater summer community on campus. Alongside the Powerhouse season of professional productions, apprentices have the opportunity to work in various capacities with some of the country’s leading theater talents. This educational experience is not replicated anywhere else in the country. Some of the program’s graduates include Ayad Akhtar, Erin Buckley, Melissa Errico, Amy Fox, Rob Handel, Josh Joya, Ian Kahn, Catherine Kellner, Katherine Kovner, Kate MacCluggage, Dylan Marron, Max Posner, Josh Radnor, Edward Ricourt, Jordan Roth, Leah Ryan, Jen Silverman, Alexandra Tolk, and Jonathan Togo. http://powerhouse.vassar.edu/apprentices/

Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between Vassar College and New York Stage & Film and dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. Powerhouse consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus during which more than 250 professional artists and 50 apprentices in the Powerhouse training program live and work together to create new theater works. Recent highlights at Powerhouse include The Hamilton Mixtape, the latest work from In the Heights Tony® Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda; Bright Star, an original musical from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell; and The Fortress of Solitude, a musical adaptation of the best-selling novel by Jonathan Lethem. Many shows from past seasons have found their way to Broadway, Off-Broadway, and theaters nationwide, including Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout Theater); Seminar by Theresa Rebeck (Golden Theater); Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash’s Murder Ballad (Manhattan Theater Club); Pulitzer finalist Nathan Englander’s The Twenty-Seventh Man (The Public Theater); and Storefront Church, John Patrick Shanley’s final installment of his “Church and State” trilogy that began with Doubt (Atlantic Theater Company). Other projects developed at the Powerhouse include the Tony Award-winning SideMan and Tru; the multi-award-winning Doubt; the groundbreaking Broadway musical American Idiot, and A Steady Rain, produced on Broadway in 2009 with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. Powerhouse.vassar.edu

New York Stage and Film (Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director; Thomas Pearson, Executive Director; Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, Leslie Urdang, Producing Directors) is a not-for-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development of new works for theater and film. Since 1985 New York Stage and Film has played a significant role in the development of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for residents of the Hudson Valley and the New York metropolitan region www.newyorkstageandfilm.org

Vassar College (Ed Cheetham and Tom Pacio, Producing Directors) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs — from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies — encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social sciences, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses. Vassar College is sited in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, NY. www.vassar.edu

Vassar College strives to make its events, performances, and facilities accessible to all. Individuals with disabilities requiring special accommodations must contact the Office of Campus Activities at least 48 hours in advance of an event, Mondays-Fridays, at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space/and or assistance may not be available. For detailed information about accessibility to specific campus facilities, search for “campus accessibility information” on the Vassar homepage (http://www.vassar.edu).